Setback

The look of exhaustion...

A few weeks ago, I was feeling more and more exhausted during, and after training. I still performed, but pain levels seemed harder. I really noticed it on the Fort Worth olympic distance triathlon, my legs were tired right at the start of the bike course. I pushed through in a businesslike manner, but it all felt hard, mechanical and uninspired.

The run (10k) was not fun and it got worse along the way. After the competition, I was faint. At the time, I thought I had eaten poorly before the competition, compounded by sports drink not being offered on the run course. Not my best race.

The following week I cut down on my normal training dose to about half, I wanted to recover. But training still felt harder than normal, in fact, it did not feel fun at all. Bottom was hit one day when I ran one mile at a fast pace, but just could not continue. My legs could not move at any decent pace. I checked my heart rate, max had only been 127 bpm. I regularly reach 170 bpm and sometimes more. Then my husband did an annual medical checkup and discovered that his iron levels were low.

Bingo. With the Mighty Mujer competition coming up in a few days, I rushed to a pharmacy and got an iron supplement. It cured the problem and three days later I felt strong again.

I normally do not take supplements but when something feels off for a longer period, its a good idea to try a few vitamins.